A Big Week

As we enter into the week before Christmas, I pass along blessings to each of you who visit this blog. It is a blessing to me to be a part of this unique community.

I was blessed this week through a children's program. I found new hope in the church as I watched 30+ kids from our small congregation fumble through their program on Sunday night. I give thanks for the joy they bring me as I learn and pray with them each week.

I imagine this will be a memorable week as I celebrate my first Christmas as a pastor of specific congregation. It brings with it huge traditions for us as we spend the days 'working'. I can only hope that the services and the time planning them will bring deep hope as we celebrate the 'great light' that we have seen, and as we celebrate the folly of a seemingly powerless child born in terrible, unkingly conditions...

Tomorrow night we are having a 'Blue Christmas' service to offer a space for some to acknowledge that the Christmas season is terribly hard for many, and only brings pain and sorrow. It also happens to fall on the Longest Night of the year, the Winter Solstice. We are offering prayers of healing, the opportunity to light a candle, write prayer requests, etc...and hear a story read that develops certain characters that may remind them of themselves. It is a community worship and I look forward to sharing the leadership with the UCC pastor in the area. She is becoming a mentor and a great source of resources for me.

Merry Christmas. Stand in the complete darkness this week and imagine the imagery you can receive of all that light does and means. Oh yeah, and I hope you get your wrapping done too! :) Paz

a few of my favorite things

from the week...(I thought I would write today to give you an excuse to be distracted from sermon writing, etc...)

I took a quiz this week to find out which Fantasy/SciFi character I best match up with and I learned that I best fit with Galadriel.

I think she said, "Even the smallest person can change the course of the future." That would be in The Lord of the Rings, if you know what that is. I am not so sure how I feel about being compared with a beautiful female angel type character. Hey, deal with it!

More interestingly this past Sunday I was given some insight into the Eucharist and children. I was serving communion on Sunday and I approached a less-than 2 year girl (that always says hello). I came to her and offered her a blessing as I went by. (I do give bread to children, but she is very young. Well as I finished up the group on the altar I watched her trying to grab her mother's communion glass. She kept moving it farther and farther away until she lurched for it and got it and proceeded to try to tap it for all it was worth. Well, she pulled it away from her mouth, looked at me, and said, "all gone?" Against my cognitive self I quickly said (before I could stop myself), "no sweetheart, there is a lot more where that came from." I said it very loud, I guess, and all of us around the area started laughing. She taught me a lot about the heart and faith Sunday.

At the other church there is a 4 year-old who gets the remaining communion bread after church. He eats some of it on Sunday and the breaks it up into pieces for the rest of the week, so he can have a little bit each day (I suppose that freaks some of you out, but I happen to adore it). On Sunday there was a very small girl, just able to walk, who came up to Adam and asked for some bread with a gesture. Her grandma said that she didn't get any bread at communion (my fault), but that she felt left out and wanted some. The metaphor broke down when Adam said "no", but after a while we helped him realize that it is break for all of us, but he is lucky to take home whatever is left over.

I know you could argue that the kids simply want something to eat (and it is good bread), but that seems to simply ignore that these children are baptized and have the Holy Spirit tugging on their heart. It seems much more imaginative to think that they are starting to realize already what the Communion of Saints is actually about. That they are starting to realize on a certain level that that Christ is actually for them. That the bread is really Jesus Christ for them. I buy it. Actually it might be one of the greatest eschatological images I have received in all of my ministry.

Hoping you experience Christ in your midst...Paz